Movie review: ‘Deadpool 2’: Too much fun, or not enough fun?

Ed Symkus More Content Now

Tuesday

May 15, 2018 at 2:01 AM

What to do before buying your ticket for “Deadpool 2”: There’s no need to check out the trailer. You don’t have to see the first one again (although it remains a real treat). No, the only prerequisite, in order to fully enjoy the sequel, is to visit YouTube and watch the 1985 music video “Take on Me” by the Norwegian band a-ha. You’ll thank me later.

It’s only been two years since Ryan Reynolds donned the red suit and the mask and started spewing batches of sometimes acerbically funny dialogue as the anti-superhero Deadpool. He’s a crime fighter with a chip on his shoulder, and a disfigured and damaged body beneath the suit that gives him every right to get away with his attitude problems. The movie was a hoot, breaking every rule of the comic book movies that came before it by achieving, then never straying from, offbeat outrageousness. That it was also extremely violent (in a cartoonish way) and featured all sorts of R-rated dialogue was a plus for audiences that were hungry for something different.

The sequel doesn’t disappoint. Or does it?

Let’s see: It’s a Marvel film that makes fun of a certain Marvel character in the first scene (think Logan action figure). It doesn’t hold back about making fun of characters in the DC Universe. Barbra Streisand gets a shout-out. The opening credits are as goofy as the goofy opening credits of its predecessor. There are some appearances by various X-Men, but don’t blink or you’ll miss most of them. No surprise: The plentiful visual effects are as fantastic as they are crazy.

This is a fun film. But therein lays its biggest problem. Though tons of viewers will love every moment of it, others are going to notice that it suffers from the dilemma that plagued “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.” That’s the fun factor question. Is “Deadpool 2” not enough fun or too much fun? Does it try too hard to be as unconventional-eccentric-quirky as the first one? There’s no satisfactory answer, but the script and some of the actors do occasionally appear to be straining for some of that earlier glory.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a Deadpool film without those qualities, so it’s best for all to just go with the flow. Besides, there’s also plenty of fresh material. Reynolds does quite a bit more of this one without the mask, as Wade more than as Deadpool. The plot, in a bit of early tragedy, moves him away from his girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and into a friendship — of sorts — with a young mutant named Russell (Julian Dennison) who, because of his special power would like to be called Firefist, but would be better off by dealing with his anger issues. The villain in this go-around is the super soldier Cable (Josh Brolin), who identifies himself only by announcing, “I’m from the future,” packs a bigger and badder arsenal of guns than Schwarzenegger ever had, declares, “There’s nothin’ I can’t kill!”, then makes it clear that Russell is his next target.

The movie shoots off into myriad directions. One looks at a prison for mutants, another comically presents Deadpool as an X-Men trainee, another has him starting up his own band … of superheroes. There’s some very funny stuff here, most of it coming from Deadpool’s non-stop barbs (Reynolds gets a co-writing credit, but you’ve got to wonder if that’s due to his constant, usually on-the-mark adlibs). But things also get kind of tear-jerky. You never know which way it’s going to turn next. Thank goodness it follows the tradition of making it worthwhile to stay for the end credits.

— Ed Symkus writes about movies for More Content Now. He can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com.

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